LVNV Funding LLC

I. Introduction and Understanding LVNV Funding

What is LVNV Funding LLC? A Comprehensive Guide

One of the biggest debt buyers in the United States is LVNV Funding LLC, that is why they are the ones who purchase huge portfolios of past-due consumer debt which is usually sold to them at a fraction of the penny. LVNV Funding, unlike the company where you initially purchased an account such as a bank or an issuer of credit cards, is a business whose business model is all about purchasing debt that the creditor who originally gave up on it to collect has provided. When LVNV is calling you, it is due to the fact that they have taken possession of the rights to the old debt and are now seeking to rectify the entire outstanding balance. The initial step of understanding them as a debt buyer will give you a chance to work out your next strategy to solve your account with them successfully.

Is LVNV Funding a Rigid Debt Collector?

Yes, LVNV Funding LLC is a valid company and a large and well known company in the financial sector but one must know the difference between being legitimate and accurate. Although the company is a real company that is operating on the legal front, the debts that they purchase are usually old and may lack complete or accurate records, which will cause an error in the collection. This is why most consumers complain about wrong balances or being called about a debt to which they have not been disbursed. Never take them lightly as they communicate, and then think that the debt specifications are accurate without seeking to confirm that the information is correct on your part to ensure that your financial interests do not suffer.

LVNV Funding LLC: Who We Are and Why We Are Calling You.

The reason that LVNV Funding is calling you is that they have acquired your old credit card, personal loan, or other consumer debt from the original lender. LVNV purchased the debt of the original creditor as you failed to pay and the account had been charged off. When LVNV Funding bought this account, it took the ownership of your debt in legal terms and thus has the authority to collect the money. What you need to understand is that the individual or company that contacts you does so with the intention of making money since they purchased your debt at a colossal loss and they want to recover as much of the balance as they can.

LVNV Funding & Original Creditor: The Difference.

The most important distinction is the relationship and information available. Your former creditor was in direct personal relations with you and perfectly informed of the history of the account. As a debt buyer, LVNV Funding is a third party with which you did not have any previous relationship and with which you frequently only have a partial picture of the original account details. It is this change of ownership that you must never allow LVNV to make any payment without being shown that they have the same, that is, they must prove to you that they are validating the debt because that is one of the frequent problems when it comes to collections.

LVNV Funding LLC: Or Debt Buyer or Debt Collector?

LVNV Funding LLC is legally recognised as a debt buyer, i.e. they are in the business of buying delinquent debt, but they act as a debt collector in the situation of recovering the money. Nonetheless, LVNV does not usually deal with day-to-day phone calls and letters. They instead contract out a third party, which is usually an affiliated business, Resurgent Capital Services, to handle the communication process and serve as the front office debt collector. The importance of this multi-layered structure is because your legal protection under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) is enjoyed not just with respect to the LVNV Funding but also with the collection agency acting on behalf of the LVNV Funding.

Fast Facts: LVNV Funding Business Model.

The business model of LVNV Funding is quite straightforward yet extremely lucrative: buy huge packages of defaulted debt at a very low price of 4 to 7 cents on the dollar, and then make efforts to collect a far bigger sum. As an illustration, they may purchase a debt of, say, a,5,000.00 at only 250. When they are in a position to convince the consumer to pay even at 2,000 USD, then they make a huge payoff on their investments. This model is profit-driven and this is the reason why they usually tend to agree on settlements, since they tend to accept a smaller payment which is certain over litigation.

The LVNV Funding Role with Resurgent Capital Services.

Upon getting a collection notice or call on an account owed to LVNV Funding, chances are high that it will be Resurgent Capital Services, L.P. Resurgent is the servicer/collection agent of the debts of LVNV Funding. In a way, LVNV has the legal title of the debt and Resurgent is the company charged with actual responsibility of reaching you, handling the account and making payments as well as even filing lawsuits. You have to know this relationship since any legal action or request of debt validation has to go to the right body which would be usually identified as the collector on your letter.

II. Debt Validation and Your Rights.

The Step One: How to Authenticate a Debt with LVNV Funding.

Once contacted by LVNV Funding or Resurgent Capital Services, the biggest step that you can make is to send a debt validation letter immediately by certified mail and request them to demonstrate the debt to be legally theirs. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) allows 30 days after the first communication to deliver this request, which puts the company on hold in all collection action until it produces certain documentation, such as the name of the original creditor, account number, and evidence that it has a legal claim to collect the debt. Waiting until after doing this important step before making any payment and acknowledging any ownership.

Your LVNV Funding LLC FDCPA Rights.

The federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) also gives you certain rights and safeguards in relation to inappropriate or unscrupulous conduct of LVNV Funding and any collector employed by them. The provisions of this law forbid the use of abusive language by collectors, false threat of arrest or a lawsuit, harassment by excessive phone calls, and misrepresentation of the price you owe. In the event you feel that either LVNV Funding or Resurgent has committed any act in violation of the FDCPA, you may lodge a complaint with CFPB or even pursue legal action against the company seeking statutory damages.

Sample Letter: How to Demand LVNV Funding to Validate Debts.

A debt validation letter must be to the point, professional and plain: inform that you are seeking to have the debt validated under FDCPA, request that they furnish evidence of the debt and ownership, and put your name and the LVNV account number on it so they can refer to it. More importantly, you are to use certified mail with a return receipt requested since the certified receipt will be your evidence of delivery and legally record the date when you initiated the 30-day validation period forcing them to suspend the collection activity temporarily.

Disputing a Debt with LVNV Funding: The 30-Day Window

The 30 days between the first contact with LVNV Funding is your strongest weapon; because it is the deadline by which they must provide adequate documentation, and when they do not offer it within that 30 days, they undermine their case to a great degree. In case the 30 days elapse, and they keep gathering without certifying the debt, or the information they submit is not complete and shows that the debt is not authentic, then you can legally challenge the account with them, and with the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion).

Was LVNV Funding in violation of the FDCPA? What to Look For

The red flags you should look at to see whether LVNV Funding or Resurgent Capital Services has infringed your FDCPA rights include addressing you after you have written a cease-and-desist letter, calling you before 8:00 AM or after 9:00 PM in your time zone, talking to you about your debt with someone other than your lawyer, and trying to collect a debt that has expired the statute of limitations in your state. The record of any of these forbidden acts, dates, and times and even recording telephone calls (assuming that your state permits such one-party permission) may be a strong statement and may be enlisted against you in case you decide to initiate a consumer protection case.

Statute of Limitation: Does LVNV Debt Have an Expiry Date?

The legal time limit according to which LVNV Funding can sue you and get a debt payment in the court is called statute of limitations (SOL), and it differs depending on the state, but in most cases, it is between three and six years in the case of credit card debt. When your debt is expired and LVNV is calling to demand your money, it is still possible, but not legally, that they will succeed in suing you, so being aware of the specific limit in your state is an effective defense in court. Be extremely cautious as even a minor payment on an old debt will re-age the account and re-open the statute of limitations clock to LVNV and will afford it a new opportunity to sue you.

What to Do with Identity Theft and LVNV Funding.

When you doubt that the LVNV Funding debt is a product of identity theft, you need to take the first action of informing the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about the theft and also submit a police report. Secondly, forward a copy of FTC Identity Theft Report and the police report with LVNV Funding and mention clearly that the account is a fake one. Under federal law, LVNV should then stop all form of collection until they make inquiries and prove their debt and they must report to the credit bureaus to have the collection account taken off your report.

III. LVNV Funding on Your Credit Report.

LVNV Funding on Your Credit Report: What this Means to Your Score.

An LVNV Funding collection entry on your credit will harm your credit score in a very negative way, as it is an indication to the lenders that you defaulted on a debt, and that makes your credit score significantly low until the entry is removed. The collection item will stay on your report up to a maximum of seven years since the date of first delinquency of the account (DOFD), irrespective of its subsequent sale to another collector, LVNV. Such a negative mark greatly complicates and increases the cost of borrowing funds, credit cards, mortgages, or even renting an apartment.

How to Get LVNV Funding out of your credit report.

Three main options are to get LVNV Funding off your credit report, first, winning the dispute over the fact that the debt is inaccurate and unverifiable; second, a Pay for Delete contract, where they consent in writing that they will remove the collection; and last, letting the seven-year reporting term of the DOFD to run out. Given that debt buyers cannot usually generate full documentation, a long-standing and documented dispute can be a good goal, particularly when the former cannot legally authenticate debt.

Challenging LVNV Funding Reporting of Inaccurate Credit with Credit Bureaus.

In case of inaccuracies in the reporting of the debt by LVNV Funding (such as the incorrect balance, the last date when it was actually used, or the list of the debtors containing your name when it is not your name), you need to submit a formal dispute request to all three credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. You will be required to articulately explain the reasons why the information is not correct and provide a copy of any documentation to support it such as your debt validation request. The credit bureaus have a legal obligation to look into your dispute within 30 days and in case LVNV Funding cannot demonstrate that the information is accurate, the account of collection should be removed off your report.

LVNV Funding Collection Credit Repair Strategy.

The best credit repair strategy to use is the proactive management of the LVNV collection. The first is to check all the details; the second is to focus on a settlement where an agreement in writing is provided to alter the status in the credit report to be paid or preferably deleting the entry altogether (Pay for Delete). When the account is aged and is nearly going out of the seven-year time, then maybe best to leave it alone and not to initiate a new inquiry or a payment to authenticate the debt so that it can naturally fall off your report.

The influence of a Pay for delete with LVNV Funding.

A Pay for Delete is a negotiation strategy where you will pay a settled sum of money to LVNV Funding in exchange of having the written agreement in which the company will fully delete the collection record off of all 3 of your credit reports. Since collection accounts damage your credit even when they are listed as paid, the best result is to have a written undertaking that it will be deleted. LVNV Funding, and many other debt buyers, will occasionally be ready to accept this in order to get a sure payment but will never pay until you have your signed and written agreement, because an oral promise is worth nothing.

Date of first delinquency: Why this is important to LVNV Funding.

Date of First Delinquency (DOFD): This is essential as it shows when the account of the collection should be eliminated off your credit report, which is seven years after this date. It is the date the account became delinquent with the original creditor and it was never cured and may not be altered or restarted even when sold to LVNV Funding. Always check to make sure that LVNV Funding is reporting the right DOFD, reporting a wrong date, or re-aging, is an unlawful action that may become the basis of a dispute and litigation.

IV. Debt Settlement Negotiating a Debt Settlement.

How to Pay off an LVNV Funding Debt at a Discount.

Because the LVNV Funding buys debts at a fraction of the face value, they stand to make high profits and are usually more than willing to settle at a lower value between 40 and 60 percent of the amount they bought. In order to effectively settle, first establish a reasonable offer, which you can afford to pay as a lump sum, or a paying plan in short, and then put a written settlement proposal into certified mail. Be ready to open at small and bargain in both directions, yet it would be necessary to make sure that the final documents would consist of clear terms, the sum of the payment, the date of settlement and how would they report the debt to the credit bureaus.

Negotiation Tactics: LVNV Funding Settlement Offers.

You must begin low when you are negotiating with LVNV Funding or Resurgent, maybe 20 to 30 percent of the entire balance so that they can make an offer in response and still come within your requested settlement range of 40 to 60. Be very professional, never tell them that you are guilty or owe the amount of money, always stress on the fact that you are ready to pay them a lump sum, this is the best offer they will get. Should they demand a greater sum, you can use the threat of contesting the debt or the inconvenience of recovering by a lawsuit as an argument in favor of their accepting your offer of less.

What is a reasonable Acceptable LVNV Funding Settlement Percentage?

Although all debt negotiations are distinct, an agreeable percentage of settlement that a debt buyer such as the LVNV Funding can pay often lies in the area of 40-60 percent of the principal value. It can easily pay less than 40% but only with a strong legal defense (such as an expired statute of limitations), and that should rarely be paid more than 60 to give LVNV a substantial profit margin. The idea is to reach out to the lowest percentage possible that will not only pay off the debt but to also get a good credit reporting status like Paid in Full or Pay for Delete.

Which one to offer LVNV Funding, Lump-Sum vs. Payment Plan.

The lump-sum payment would be nearly always more attractive to LVNV Funding as it ensures that they receive the payment immediately and that they can close the account fast. Provided that you have the money to do it, you will be in a better position to negotiate by lowering the settlement percentage and getting a more preferable credit reporting agreement. Nevertheless, when the lump sum cannot be paid, propose a payment plan in the short run (e.g., 3 to 6 months), but make sure that the sum of payments that will be settled is perfectly clear and that you receive a written agreement that will encompass all the payments before the plan commences.

Obtaining Your LVNV Funding Settlement Agreement by the Book.

Before you send any payment it is important to make sure that you have a full, signed, written settlement agreement between yourself and LVNV Funding or Resurgent Capital Services. This document must expressly indicate the amount to be settled upon to ensure that payment of such sum will ensure the debt is thoroughly paid, and that further efforts of collecting the payment are to be stopped; and the manner of reporting the account on your credit file (i.e. Paid in Full, Account Deleted). And in the absence of this written agreement, you would have no legal support to indicate the agreement and would therefore end up losing to future collection efforts or false credit reporting.

Lawsuits and Legal Action V. LVNV Funding.

Sued by LVNV Funding LLC? Your Immediate Action Plan

Assuming you have been sued by LVNV Funding, the most important thing you should do is to read the summons and complete a formal Answer with the court before the deadline (which is normally 20-30 days depending on state). The summons should not be disregarded since this will lead to a default judgment in your favor giving LVNV authority to garnish your salary or seize your bank accounts. An Answer helps guard your rights even in an instance when you believe that you owe the debt and also gives you time to settle the debt or prepare a defense.

Do Not Ignore a Lawsuit of LVNV Funding: State Deadlines.

The biggest mistake that one can make is ignoring a lawsuit filed by LVNV Funding because this will ensure that the latter win the case and receive the default judgment. Each and every state has a firm deadline of responding to a civil complaint, and not doing it in the right time will take away your rights to defend yourself in court. The Answer date and time is printed plainly on the Summons and in case you are not sure of what to do, just call a consumer defense attorney which will assist you in drafting and submitting your Answer within the time constraint.

How to Respond to an LVNV Funding Summons or Complaint

Your answer to the Summons, which is called the Answer, has to be filed at the court clerk and delivered to the attorney of LVNV Funding within the deadline that has to be given. The Answer is a legal document that responds to every complaint brought against you where in most cases you deny the claims as LVNV does not have the required documentation to prove the claims against you. By submitting an Answer, you are admitting defeat and giving LVNV the opportunity to discover, meaning that you can legally force LVNV to turn over the entire evidence and chain of title to the debt.

The immunity to an LVNV Funding Lawsuit.

The most common and effective legal defenses in the case against an LVNV Funding lawsuit are based on the fact that they are unable to present suitable evidence. The major defenses are: the statute of limitations has lapsed on the debt; LVNV cannot demonstrate the entire chain of title to legally possess the identified debt; the balance is inaccurate because of any fees; or lack of the original contract or payment history. Increasing such fortifications can make LVNV either dismiss the case, or pay a significantly smaller settlement to avoid the costs and time of a trial in which their evidence can be found wanting.

What Is the Result in the Case that LVNV Funding receives a Default Judgment?

Provided that LVNV Funding receives a default judgment due to your default in response to the lawsuit, it will have the potent legal instruments to collect the entire amount due, legal fees, and interest. The judgment is a court order which may permit them to seek wage garnishment (a percentage of your wages), freeze money in your bank accounts (a bank levy) or ease a lien on your property. The worst-case scenario is called a judgment and is the reason why you have to take a summons with urgent and serious consideration.

Wage garnishment LVNV Funding Wage Garnishment: Do they have the power to garnish your wages?

The only way that LVNV Funding can garnish your wages is by suing you and winning a judgment in their favor by a court of law. The extent to which they are authorized to actually grab a portion of your paycheck and the amount they are allowed to do so will entirely depend on the laws of your state since some states provide high levels of protection against wage garnishment of consumer debt. When you get a notice of intent to garnish your wages, it denotes a judgment has been filed and you need to hire the services of an attorney to seek the legal alternatives such as filing a motion to vacate the judgment or declaring yourself bankrupt.

VI. Complex Problems and Solution.

LVNV Funding Lawsuits Case Studies and Defenses.

The case studies review shows that LVNV Funding loses in many situations when consumers develop a strong defense based on the absence of evidence and chain of title. Most of the victorious defenses emphasize upon the dependence of the debt buyer on so-called robo-signed affidavits and inadequate documentation, which do not directly connect the records of the original creditor to the purchase by LVNV. Knowing that their greatest vulnerability is the paperwork, consumers can take advantage of the discovery stage of a lawsuit and aggressively look at the legality of their claim.

The Relationship between LVNV funding and the Sherman financial Group.

LVNV funding LLC is a subsidiary of Sherman financial group, which is a huge conglomerate in the market of distressed debts. The significance of this relationship lies in the fact that this relationship defines how LVNV (the debt owner) and Resurgent Capital Services (the debt servicer) coordinate their efforts since they belong to the same corporate family structure. The knowledge of this internal structure will make you realize that you are dealing with a big, integrated financial machine, not a small, independent collection agency.

Should I use a lawyer to negotiate with LVNV Funding?

It is very advisable to have a consumer defense attorney hired in case LVNV Funding has initiated a lawsuit against you, a lawyer can regulate the complicated legal retaliation, bring up all the essential defense, and have a higher likelihood of winning or agreeing on an advantageous settlement. In cases of non-lawsuit collection efforts, an attorney is unnecessary, although it is still a good idea, particularly in cases where the debt is substantial, in cases where they are violating the FDCPA or when you are unsure of what to do regarding the debt validation process or credit reporting disputes.

Alternative Resolution: Bankruptcy and LVNV Funding Debt.

In case you owe too much money and you are being hunted by numerous collectors such as LVNV Funding, one of the possible ways out is to declare yourself bankrupt (Chapter 7 or Chapter 13). Unsecured consumer debt on a credit card made up of debts owned by LVNV Funding would normally be dischargeable in Chapter 7 bankruptcy, so that you would no longer be legally obligated to pay it. Bankruptcy is another act that results in an automatic stay which is legally binding on LVNV Funding to cease all actions and lawsuits to collect on it.

LVNV Funding Reviews and BBB Complaints: What the Consumers Complained.

The complaints of LVNV Funding that are regularly reviewed by consumers and Better Business Bureau (BBB) often revolve around purportedly reporting inaccurately, not verifying the existence of a debt, and trying to collect on a debt where the statute of limitations has passed. Although these grievances are not a part of the legal evidence in your case, they are the evidence of general operational difficulties that debt buyers may face and the necessity of every consumer scrutinizing the debt and keeping a log of all communication to ensure there is no financial obligation.